Prague steels itself for England’s fans, Ireland may have a new hero in Aaron Connolly and Scotland are desperate to find goals
In what looks certain to resemble the world’s most unedifying stag party, an estimated 6,000 England fans will descend on Prague to watch Gareth Southgate’s team take on the Czech Republic. Unsurprisingly designated as a “high risk” fixture, this Friday night game will attract no shortage of thirsty visitors to the Czech capital, hellbent on making a weekend of it in a city renowned for the cheapness of its beer and myriad other nocturnal delights. Scheduled to kick off at 8.45pm local time, when more patriotic fans will have had all day to occupy the city’s Old Town Square, get liquored up and perform their traditional repertoire of ditties, it is difficult to imagine the local constabulary will be kept idle following Uefa’s refusal to move the game to a more suitable day or time. While many England fans are perfectly well-behaved, anti-social behaviour of the kind seen in Amsterdam and Porto on recent excursions seems dismally inevitable. “You’re part of our team, make the country proud,” said Gareth Southgate, in the FA’s attempt to get in front of the problem by releasing a video entitled Don’t Be That Idiot. Somebody will almost certainly be that idiot and, if recent history tells us anything, they are unlikely to be alone. BG
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